I barely read – offline

I know how hard it was to beat the urge to watch television and read a book instead. I come from a family of voracious readers, so reading was not an acquired taste, but a covertly enforced characteristic. I was not forced to read a book per se, but since everyone at home did, I followed suit. Not many of my friends did, but I wouldn’t call them dull or worry about their intelligence.

I have always considered myself an avid reader. I still am. But online. Until recently, I used to read two books simultaneously (I have ADD). I don’t like reading one book at a time. I could blame my ADD or a lack of time when I started grad school, but I’d be lying. I could also blame Google – just for lack of anything else.

But honestly speaking, I think it is my inherent dislike to read long passages of text from one source. Ironically, I could barely get by Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? without going to other links every three pages.

There are also others who would want to do something else instead of read a book. Mokoto Rich spoke of how the Internet is curbing teenagers desire to read books. I don’t quite subscribe to this opinion. Even before the advent of the Internet, there have been several people who akin books to eating vegetables. So in my opinion, it is somewhat unfair to blame Google and its cohorts or even the Internet for teens disinterest in reading books. However, I do agree that such technology does reduce interest in reading books. But how come we’re not considering the fact that people read more online?

I read more online than I do offline. I get to interact with people who have similar tastes, help re-write books the way I like it on fan-fiction sites and have access to Google Books and other similar sites that offer books even in PDF file formats. So why would I not read online? And for now, since I can’t think of many libraries with as many users with similar tastes, I’ll stick to reading online.

PS: I’m still a romantic when it comes to reading books. There’s no software that can take the place of the smell of old paper, the scent of fresh ink in new books and even the fact that I can stick a fancy bookmark where I last left off.